US President Donald Trump expects to hold a trilateral summit meeting with Russia and Ukraine as early as August 22, Friday, according to US-based Axios web portal.
According to the website, Trump announced that “he wants to organise a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskyy as early as next Friday,” during a telephone call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders, after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15.
On August 15, Putin and Trump met at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Alaska. Their talks lasted approximately three hours, including a one-on-one conversation in the American leader’s limousine en route to the main negotiation venue, as well as a subsequent small-group discussion involving three participants on either side, reports TASS.
The Russian delegation included Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while the American side was represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff. In a statement to the media following the talks, Putin said they mostly focused on resolving the Ukraine conflict.
Trump described his summit with Putin as “very productive.” Later, he called Zelenskyy, EU leaders, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. After the summit and the phone calls, Trump said that Ukraine and Russia should go straight to agreeing on a final peace deal as he dropped his demand for a ceasefire.
Trump and Zelenskyy are due to have a meeting in the White House on August 18. The US leader said that if talks with Zelenskyy are a success, another meeting with Putin will be scheduled.